


Staying with You

by SnowStorm22



Category: Free!
Genre: College, College Life, Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, fluffly fluff that's all, great, i think i accidentally made this into a series, its makoharu in college what else do you want, kind of?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-16
Updated: 2014-11-17
Packaged: 2018-02-25 14:32:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2625278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnowStorm22/pseuds/SnowStorm22
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[Moments do not define us. What we do in those moments define us] Haru goes to college with Makoto. Makoto goes to college with Haru. Its nice. It's life. And they simply live.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Tokyo

**Author's Note:**

> Haru comes home. He's found a dream. Makoto thinks his dream is with Rin. Haru laughs - it's always been Makoto.

Haru found his dream. Haru was happy.

Makoto was ecstatic. Makoto was so, so relieved. And yet, at the same time...

Makoto was sad, because he'd be losing his best friend to Australia. But it's okay because _look_ : Haru's smiling. He's actually smiling. 

And each one of those little smiles put another little bandaid on Makoto's fragile, broken heart. That would have to do, because Makoto would  _never_ try to hurt Haru's happiness. Ever.

_But I'm gonna be all alone._

_Haru's going with Rin._

_What will I do? What will become of me?_

_...._

_I'll manage. It's okay_.  

For Haru _,_ it was _always_ okay.

* * *

 

They were celebrating their graduation at Haru's house, shooting off fireworks in the backyard ( _they_ being Haru, Rei, Nagisa, Rin, and himself). Tears were shed (mostly from Rin), many hugs spread around (mostly from Nagisa), but all in all it was a beautiful night.

Finally, everything died down for the night. Goodbyes spoken, along with a few more tears and hugs, but the guests eventually found their way home.

Except for Makoto, who was sleeping over. 

Alongside his brunet companion, Haru started to clean up the mess of empty fireworks boxes and shells, left by none other than the energetic blond. It was then, in that calming silence, that Makoto finally spoke.

"We're really adults now, huh, Haru?"

"I guess." The taller male smiled at the predictable response.

"I wonder what college will be like.." He questioned, grabbing an empty box and putting it in his trashbag.

"School." Came the dolphin's blunt reply. The green-eyed male laughed.

"You certainly sound excited." He teased; that one doesn't get the pleasure of a one-word response. "You and Rin have been together a lot recently. I guess you probably need to practice your English with him a lot, huh?"

Haru looked up, raising a brow at the other as he grabbed a few rogue sparklers, but says nothing.

"It's gonna be weird without you and Rin. I'll probably come back to Iwatobi a lot; you won't be able to, though, huh?" 

Cue an even more confused freestylist.

"Have you booked plane tickets yet? I know they can be expensive, especially when you're going to a different country." 

Haru finally gets it. His lips twitch up for a moment, finding the situation quite humorous.  _Oh, what a surprise he was about to give the other._

 _"_ Australia's usually hot, I think, so make sure to pack lots of shorts and stuff!" 

The blue-eyed male couldn't help the small smile on his face.

"Oh, have you started packing? I can help if you need me to." 

The smile became a smirk.

"Ah.. I can send you letters, right?"

"..That might be kind of weird, Makoto." The raven finally responded. Makoto looked up, confused, becoming even more so as he noticed his friend's expression.

The blue-eyed teen was  _grinning._ Nanase Haruka, ever stoic Haru-chan, had a cat-like grin on his face, and the orca couldn't understand what was so amusing.

"Haru?" 

The questioned male gave no reply, simply heading inside. Makoto followed.

Followed him past his front room

   Into his kitchen (where they dropped off the trash)

         Through the hallway

               Up his stairs

                     Into his bedroom

Only stopping as the other halted in front of his desk, now shuffling through papers.

"Haru..?" 

Finally, the dolphin found what he wanted, turning around and putting it right in front of the taller's face. Cue a startled yelp.

After the initial shock, peridot eyes focused on the words of the white sheet.

It's a letter of acceptance..

From **Tokyo University**..

 _For a "Nanase Haruka."_ (His gender somehow got marked as "female" but we'll just ignore that for the time being.)

 

Makoto stared at the slip blankly until finally a lightbulb goes off in his head.

"H-Haru, you..."

"I'm not going with Rin."

"I-it-"

"I'm staying with you."

Makoto's shocked, but then he's smiling, and now there's a grin from ear to ear, and before the raven knew it he was engulfed in a bone-crushing hug. Exuberant laughter bubbled out from the younger (and tears, too, if the increasing wetness on Haru's back was any hint). A smile forms on that normally neutral face as he finally hugs back.

" _You know I wouldn't leave you."_

 


	2. Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Makoto doesn't think of Haru as someone who'd hold dearly to old memories. Haru doesn't think Makoto should be so surprised.  
> (Or what happens when Makoto finds a scrapbook in the midst of Haru's boxes.)

They'd gotten a fair amount of boxes unpacked, although it wasn't like Haru had many things. Cooking supplies, clothing, build-it-yourself furniture, basically whatever Makoto had told him he might need to get. Well, and then he, like, halved that list, and Makoto got mad, and  _you need more than a week's worth of clothes, Haru, you can't just wear the same thing everyday!_

Cue the eyeroll of a lifetime from a very apathetic ( _on the surface)_ dolphin. 

Regardless, they'd gotten everything they needed and were carefully moving in. Makoto more than Haru; the freestylist thought unpacking could wait, but alas. No tub-time for him.

He was in the other room, so he didn't notice the orca pull out a fairly large, somewhat worn-looking blue book labelled " _Memories."_

Makoto flipped it open.

The first few pages were Haru. Only Haru. There weren't a whole lot of photos; some from when he was very young, some as he grew up. Except for family in a few of the photos, the small blue-eyed boy was alone.

Then, things changed. Scenery, house, people - now, in the pictures, was a small brunette as well. Makoto smiled, recognizing some of the pictures from when they were younger. There were photos from birthdays, days spent at the park, swimming (a given), etc., and the green-eyed male could remember nearly every one.

"Makoto." Hearing his name, the backstroker's head snapped up, meeting sapphire. 

Haru paused, blinking, before he recognized the book. A light blush dusted the raven's cheeks, embarrassed at being caught with it.

"Oh, umm, that's-"

"Photos of us. I saw." The orca replied, eyes crinkling as he smiled. "I didn't think you'd ever bring something like this." 

".. Thought it might be nice to have. Your mom went to the trouble of making it, so-"

"My mom?" Cue a rather confused Makoto. Why would his mom have all that stuff of Haru's? The other nodded in reply.

"Your mom is good at scrapbooking. My mom isn't. She wanted something to look back on since they.." Haru wasn't sure how to put  _left me all by myself_ into nice wording, so he let the sentence drop. Makoto understood.

"Ah, I kind of remember seeing her work on this. I never knew what it was, though." The taller replied, flipping through more pages. It was mostly himself and Haru now: at sleepovers, during school functions, holidays.. Growing up together. 

"Its.. she managed to fit a lot in there."   _Through our highschool career._ That was the message Makoto saw as he flipped further back, eyes just glancing over the pages now.

Haru walked over, sitting by his companion, and peered down at the pictures. Majority of them were pictures at swim tournaments, of course. He stopped Makoto at a rather cute page.

A picture in the top right seemed to be taken by Ran - Ren was in the picture, looking to be laughing, while in the back you could see Makoto and Haru. They were over a stove, Makoto was attempting to cook, and...

Well, we all know how that goes.

Haru felt his lips twitch up. Makoto rolled his eyes.

"I guess there were additions from secret sources, too." The younger muttered, covering his face with his hand. Haru took the chance, finally picking up the book, and walked off into his room, ignoring the indignant "Hey!" from the other. He returned empty-handed.

"I'll get it out when we finish." The raven said, crossing his arms. Makoto huffed, crossing his arms as well, a small pout on his face. It.. was not intimidating in the slightest. "Come on." 

Ever obedient, the orca stood, moving to help with another box. 

There was a comfortable silence that settled in as the two worked together to finish unloading. Haruka did end up breaking it once more, though.

"... I didn't realize.." He started, a bit too soft for the other to properly hear.

"Hmm, Haru?"

"... I just.. didn't realize. We were together a lot." He finished. Makoto smiled in response. 

"We still are." He replied. Haru paused, looking at his companion for but a moment. A message flashed through his eyes, something only Makoto could catch, before he turn around.

"C'mon, lets finish. I want to get in the bath." Cue laughter from the non-water-obsessed male.

"Alright, I'm coming."

 

_We're together, Makoto. And we always will be._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoa hey wow look I did a chapter two what a time to be alive. I got 26 kudos and I was like "Hey that's cool" So... how about bringing that total up for 60 for a third chapter? ... Is that okay to ask? Holy moly I don't wanna be mean to you guys.
> 
> I hope you have a nice day! Or a good rest, if you read this before bed!

**Author's Note:**

> Mako/Haru is there. You just gotta look really hard. (May edit to make this more obvious. Probably will, actually.)  
> Hey. So.. This is my first fic. Just a little fluffy thing, because we weren't told how Haru told Makoto so... If you have anything to comment on, don't hold back. Everything helps make my day, if you're ever feeling particularly nice! I may add on this, since woe is my shipper heart. (Multi-shipper heart; the pain, oh, the pain.)
> 
> Edit: Yep, this is becoming a series, and I'm gonna get these babs together. So.


End file.
